LSU thought the hardest part of their week was going to be handling the firing of Brian Kelly and the underwhelming, albeit brief, tenure he had leading the Tigers. Instead, the search for his successor has become a big spectacle after Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, decided to step in. He doesn’t know who’s going to be part of the search committee, nor is he himself going to be involved, but he is adamant that LSU athletic director Scott Woodward will have no involvement.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry just slammed LSU athletic director Scott Woodward on Brian Kelly fiasco.
— Trey Wallace (@TreyWallace_) October 29, 2025
Says he will not hire next coach
“No, I can tell you right now Scott Woodward is not selecting the next head coach. I’d let Donald Trump select it before I let him do it…” pic.twitter.com/4sXNglsuJE
Though I don’t agree with Landry's approach, he makes a decent point. Woodward’s track record with hiring football coaches is miserable. That said, what Landry doesn’t realize he’s doing is adding to the chaos of LSU’s coaching search, making the job less desirable and eliminating the Tigers from a sweepstakes of the top coaches in college football.
No coach like Marcus Freeman or Lane Kiffin would leave their current situations for the dumpster fire the LSU job is becoming. Which is why all the chaos with the Tigers and their football program is good for the rest of college football. This is going to be one of the craziest coaching cycles in memory and LSU is quickly eliminating themselves from the conversation.
Scott Woodward’s track record isn’t a good sign for LSU’s coaching search
In Woodward’s time as an athletic director he’s made some sketchy hires. After firing Kelly, Woodward is now the athletic director responsible for hiring the coaches with the two highest contract buyouts in college football. That’s right, Woodward hired Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M. His successor, Ross Bjork, fired him and coughed up nearly $78 million in buyout money. Woodward wasn't responsible for all of that, as Bjork had given Fisher a lucrative extension, but it was his call to bring the coach to College Station.
It was also his call to poach Brian Kelly from Notre Dame, handing him a 10-year, $95-million contract.
Woodward's crumbling reputation makes the LSU job that much less attractive. Why would a coach want to leave their current situation to enter a chaotic one? The Penn State job seemed like an unattractive job because of the pressure to win right away. The LSU job is worse because you have an administration that is in shambles.
The timing isn’t ideal either as Florida and Arkansas each have openings with maybe more joining them before the end of the year. There’s even a possibility that Florida State rids themselves of Mike Norvell as another open job too.
On top of that, if Kiffin leaves Ole Miss for one of the open jobs, that makes LSU’s job that much tougher to fill their vacancy with a reputable hire. They have to make a big splash hire just like their SEC counterparts. They’re quickly talking themselves out of the conversation and it’s opening the door for their conference foes to find their replacement first.
Florida, Arkansas openings just got a lot more interesting thanks to LSU’s dysfunction
If you look at the candidates that are already out there and the ones that could pop up as jobs start to get filled, it makes you wonder if LSU doesn’t realize how fragile this coaching cycle is going to be for them. They can’t just rely on being a name to attract the best coaching candidates.
NIL and the transfer portal have balanced the playing field and with other SEC jobs open, they’re going to need more than a championship background to land the coach they actually want. And as they continue to show dysfunction, it makes the other jobs look that much better. Dare I say, the Arkansas job is a better gig than LSU at this point.
This job should be one of the best out there and Woodward and Landry are proving there’s more disorder than it is order. LSU did this to themselves and now they have to figure out how to rectify it. This should be just as exciting of a job as the Florida one and instead, it might be the last one to get filled.